Crafting a top-rated sitcom requires a cast of gifted lead actors, a stable of clever writers, and a talented production crew. A strong supporting cast doesn’t hurt, either. Creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady assembled such a collection at Warner Bros. studio in Burbank when “The Big Bang Theory” debuted on CBS in 2007.

Returning for its 11th season last month, John Ross Bowie, Kevin Sussman, and Wil Wheaton will revive their popular reoccurring characters throughout the new season. As veteran actors, each now with around 100 or more film and television roles to their credit, all debuted on the series in 2009 and share memories of working on the hit show (note: spoilers ahead!).

The Kripke Agitation

John Ross Bowie’s character Barry Kripke first appeared midway through season two in “The Killer Robot Instability” episode. Bowie calls himself a “late bloomer” in the profession after breaking in with commercial work.

“I grew up in the theater district of New York City which actually discouraged me from becoming an actor because I knew so many people who were struggling at it,” he said from Los Angeles. “I eventually realized I had to at least give it a shot or I’d never forgive myself. I was 28 before I started making a living at it.”

As relentless nemesis to quirky, fastidious Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) during the first 10 seasons, Bowie will continue taunting his fellow physicist despite landing his own series.

“I live from offer to offer on the show, so I never know how many episodes I will do in a season. Usually, I get several weeks’ notice but I don’t see the script until a night or two before we start rehearsing. I’m now also on a long-term gig with the new comedy series ‘Speechless’ on ABC Wednesday nights, so ‘Big Bang’ has to work around that schedule.”

Bowie auditioned for the “Big Bang” pilot. “They were seeing pretty much every nerd in LA for the two main roles and I actually read for the part of Leonard. When I found out (Johnny) Galecki got it, I was uncharacteristically not resentful! I didn’t know him, but was familiar with his work and felt he was a good match for the role.”

When the call came for a return audition, Bowie didn’t hesitate.

“They were looking for a reoccurring ‘villain’ and Chuck remembered me. Initially, I played the character as an alfa nerd bully, but Chuck and Bill thought he should have some vulnerability so Chuck suggested a speech impediment. I tried something subtle, but what came out was this Elmer Fudd voice.”

Although Bowie thought it sounded over the top, the producers like it. “Chuck has this very specific laugh and began giggling. I started work the next day.”

Surprisingly, says Bowie, he’s received no negative feedback despite using the character’s disability as a source of humor. “For all his flaws, Kripke is not a loser and is incredibly smart, so I think there’s something fundamentally empowering about the character. He wins more than he loses, as in the fighting robot scenes.

In that episode, Sheldon, Leonard, Howard (Simon Helberg) and Raj (Kunal Nayyar) construct a fighting robot and Kripke challenges them to a fight to the death with his.

“The robots were constructed especially for the episode and controlled by the visual effects team just off camera. Mine breathed real fire that was actually very hot to be around. And when one went bursting through a door, it really did! They were legitimately scary and I wondered ‘is someone going to die this week?’”

One of his favorite episodes involved pranking Sheldon while he gives a radio interview. Kripke secretly pumps helium into Sheldon’s room.

“Jim actually sucked on a helium balloon before saying his lines, so when you see the cast hysterically laughing in the cafeteria, we weren’t acting. Jim’s voice raised three registers just cracked us up.”

Bowie looks forward to his future involvement with the show and the opportunities it continues to afford him.

“I think it’s a big reason I got the part on ‘Speechless.’ ‘Big Bang’ has been a massive international success, so I’m very fortunate. If you’re going to have a reoccurring gig, let it be a hit TV sitcom with a terrific cast.”

The Stuart Illumination

Kevin Sussman says he never auditioned for “Big Bang,” but read for a previous Lorre production. When later offered the Kripke character, he was unavailable but eventually accepted the role of ‘Stuart Bloom,’ the comic book store owner, and first appeared towards the end of the second season in “The Hofstadter Isotope” episode.

“That was the beginning of Stuart,” said Sussman from Los Angeles. “I never thought I would be on for another 9 years.”

Unbeknownst to the producers, Sussman had worked as an assistant manager at Jim Hanley’s comic book store in New York City as a college student. “Their motto was ‘Where Art Meets Literature’ and it was probably the most fun job I had outside of working in the ‘fake’ store on the show.”

In reality, the store on the set isn’t all that fake.

“It’s actually completely filled with real comic books. But the only ones you see on screen are DC Comics, never Marvel, because DC is a subsidiary of Warner’s. They also keep it stocked with recent comics so when I work, I’ll browse the new stuff. It even has that distinctive smell like a real comic book store from the paper and ink, although it’s mixed with sawdust odor from all the set construction.”

Despite his on and off-screen connection to comic books, Sussman is more into board games these days. “I actually have an obsession about them and a big collection of mostly European games. I guess that puts me up there in the top nerd category among the cast members, but I like the social nature of playing.”

Sussman says he didn’t receive a lot of initial direction about how to play Stuart, a sweet but lonely guy who suffers from extreme low self-esteem.

“Stuart has actually devolved over the years, I think partly because the writers have got the sense of who I am and steered the character in a way that will suit my comedic sensibility.”

He says his favorite episode was the “The Mommy Observation” where several cast members play a Murder Mystery game and Stuart is the victim.

“I literally spent a week coming to work every day and just lying on the floor!” he said, laughing. “But it was fun, because most of the cast were involved. Often I only have scenes with a couple of the characters, so it’s always extra fun when we all work together.”

In season 8, Stuart developed an oddly close relationship with Howard’s mother, Mrs. Wolowitz (played by the late Carol Ann Susi who died during the season), and eventually moved in to look after her. Throughout the series, Mrs. Wolowitz is never really seen, interacting with the cast via her demanding, shrieking voice off-camera.

“Her voice wasn’t taped, she was actually backstage doing it all live. Of course, she was nothing like that character, just a sweet, kind, and fun person – I knew her the way Stuart knew her. But I didn’t know she was sick at all, I think it was a complete shock to everyone when she died.”

Rather than replace her character with another actress, the writers wrote her death into the series. They later revived the unseen character concept when Howard and Bernadette’s baby came along in season 10.

“It’s an old TV trope – remember the neighbor on ‘Home Improvement’ whose face is always covered? I liked the thematic continuity of replacing her character with a baby you hear but never see.”

Besides the seven lead actors, Sussman has appeared more than any other cast member – in over 60 episodes. He is currently writing a sitcom pilot – yet to be picked up – and has co-written other projects with Bowie. “We were friends in New York back in the day we were both doing commercials.”

While he is currently not involved in other acting projects, there is one role he would readily tackle if the chance arose – the lead in a biopic of the late comedian Gene Wilder, whom it’s been suggested he resembles.

“He’s an idol of mine, so that’s the best compliment ever. I actually auditioned for him when he was writing a mystery movie and he cast me on the spot. But I couldn’t do it because it conflicted with a sitcom pilot. It remains one of my everlasting regrets.”

But there are no misgivings about his involvement in “The Big Bang Theory” and he continues to enjoy his Stuart character. And so do his fans, like the girl who wrote on social media “I want to carry (Stuart) around in my pocket and feed him crackers and wine.”

“That sounds nice, actually,” he laughed. “A lot of fans say they can identify with the character, I guess because he’s more of a regular person than the others who are super geniuses. They also ask if Stuart will ever get a girlfriend – I’m curious about that, too!”

The Wil Wheaton Conversion

Wil Wheaton has come a long way since first appearing as 14-year-old Wesley Crusher on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” in the 1980s. Numerous roles and three decades later, Wheaton was pitched a ‘Big Bang’ part by creator Prady.

“Bill asked me to play a ‘delightfully evil version of myself,’” recalled Wheaton from Los Angeles. Concerned that a continuing cameo role might be creatively limiting, Wheaton consulted friend John Rogers, who created the TV drama “Leverage” on which Wheaton worked.

“He said ‘Are you insane? It’s the best show on television! Call Bill Prady back right now and tell him, yes, or we’re not friends anymore!’ Of course I did, and still feel silly that I had to think about it.”

But playing himself didn’t initially come naturally.

“It was a real challenge to intellectually, creatively, and emotionally separate the Wil Wheaton I play from the Wil Wheaton I am. I think of him as an alternative universe version of who I really am and it probably took 5 years before I achieved complete separation of the two. But I learned to approach him as I would any other character.”

Initially written to irritate Parson’s Sheldon, Wheaton says Parson fans have never taken him to task for sassing their beloved character.

“It may be the only role in my career where the feedback has been universally positive,” he said. “In the early years when Sheldon and I were rivals, Jim and I worked really hard to base that relationship in a reality where each character could justify his actions. Fans appreciated that it was never a cruel relationship, but always meant to be silly. Wil was just amused that Sheldon could get so easily riled. It was like I was giving Sheldon the materials to build a trap, then watching him build it and falling into it.”

Their relationship changed in the season 5 episode, “The Russian Rocket Reaction.”

“That’s where I give Sheldon a Wil Wheaton action figure (mint in package!) and Brent Spiner rips it open to Sheldon’s horror and we become friends. Bill Prady said ‘We’ll see what happens with that.’”

Wil then evolves into the occasional councilor to the other characters.

“I absolutely loved the episodes where Sheldon comes to Wil for advice. Then there’s the episode where Leonard brings Penny (Kaley Cuoco) to me for guidance about her acting career. I got to work with the writers to make those scenes emotionally truthful and based on my real life. At those times, the vale that separates me from the TV version of me is at its thinnest.”

Wheaton’s first appearance in “The Creepy Candy Coating Corollary” episode coincided with Melissa Rauch’s as Bernadette and as rookies, he says the two bonded.

“We did, right after the first table read. I was talking with Kevin and discovered we were both gaming nerds. The next day I brought in some games for when we weren’t rehearsing and we were playing a card game, Guillotine, in my dressing room. Melissa’s room was next to mine and she came over and we taught her how to play. So I always felt a special comradery with her knowing we started on the same episode.”

Wheaton also shares an astronomical bond with all the lead cast members, as well as Lorre, Prady, and the show’s science adviser David Saltzberg – each has an asteroid named after them. In 2015, the main cast and crew were all assigned names of asteroids that were discovered by University of Hawaii astronomer Bobby Bus in 1981.

Wheaton got has asteroid earlier this year. Discovered by Belgian astronomer Thierry Pauwels in 2006, 391257wilwheaton orbits between Jupiter and Mars and Wheaton says it’s a little larger than an automobile.

“It’s an incredible honor, although I thought it was a gag when I first heard about it,” he said. “Obviously you can’t actually see it with the naked eye, but an astronomer friend told me which constellation to look at to see the general direction where it is. Its orbit doesn’t cross the Earth’s, so I guess my lifelong dream of destroying the planet will never be realized! Kunal has a picture of his asteroid’s orbit on his dressing room door, so it’s neat we all have that in common now.”

Away from the “Big Bang” set, Wheaton is usually juggling several projects. Upcoming work includes voice-overs for the new “Transformers” TV series and “Stretch Armstrong & the Flex Fighters,” which is currently in production for Netflix. Also a writer, his recent short story “Dead Trees Give No Shelter” is available through Amazon.

But despite his lengthy, varied career, the “Big Bang” role remains special. “The tremendous level of focused professionalism makes it one of my favorite sets to work on.”

As for his continuing relationship with Sheldon, Wheaton likes to speculate.

“I’ve always thought Sheldon and Wil should go back to being rivals since it was the foundation of their relationship. I guess we’ll see!”

Nick Thomas teaches at Auburn University at Montgomery, Ala, and has written features, columns, and interviews for over 650 newspapers and magazines. See www.tinseltowntalks.com